Obsession by: Art Wallace and directed by: Ralph Senensky

 

“Obsession” is written by Art Wallace and is directed by Ralph Senensky.  It was filmed under production code 47, was the 13^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 42^nd episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on December 15, 1967.

 

Art Wallace was already a veteran television writer when he wrote his first script for Star Trek, writing several episodes of television as far back as the 1940s and being integral to the first 17 weeks of supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows before contributing “Obsession” to Star Trek’s second season.  Wallace’s script plays on ideas that had already been explored earlier in the season with “The Doomsday Machine”, especially in terms of an unknowable enemy that is intelligent and only wants to destroy the Enterprise when it comes upon it.  What sets “Obsession” apart from the earlier episode and quite a lot of Star Trek in general is that it is a character piece that is so distinct and directly written to be a grounded drama instead of a piece of science fiction.  This is an episode that is certainly not ashamed of its science fiction elements, but Wallace puts those elements in the background in favor of an exploration of James T. Kirk and his obsession with perfection.  There is a cloud of gas that is essentially a vampire, draining the blood from several crewman, and it is an entity that Kirk initially encountered as a young officer on the Farragul, eleven years into his past.  The past of Kirk is something that has come up before, but rather poorly in episodes like “Operation – Annihilate!” where Kirk’s brother is introduced in dialogue and is found dead before he can have any piece of characterization.  But here, Kirk is determined to stop any sort of destruction, destruction that he directly brings as further crewmembers are killed and the son of one of the Farragul victims, Garrovick played by Stephen Brooks, is forced off-duty due to freezing when presented with a chance to destroy the creature.  Shatner’s performance in the episode is quite the layered performance, his stubborn nature getting in the way enough so McCoy and Spock threaten to relieve him of command.  It’s honestly one of Shatner’s best performances.

 

The character writing also doesn’t stop with Kirk, the rest of the cast are all on top form in this episode, mainly due to Art Wallace giving everybody these incredibly small moments.  Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel has a singular scene where she is given agency to convince Garrovick, under medical observation, to eat using psychology and deceit.  This is a scene that doesn’t necessarily forward the plot or explore the science fiction idea of the episode, but it does make the setting feel more alive than other episodes of Star Trek have done in many ways.  Barrett is allowed to shine as an actress when several other episodes have just had her in the background with minimal dialogue.  James Doohan as Scotty also has moments like this, being used to warn Kirk of engineering dangers and the fear that the Yorktown and its medical supplies will lose stability.  Scotty’s here for exposition but the exposition is beautifully crafted exposition that communicates the sense of danger outside of the main plot of the episode, allowing the audience to truly see Kirk’s folly in the episode.  Ralph Senensky’s direction is perhaps where the episode is held back slightly.  Senensky is clearly a talented director, but the way the episode is shot has several moments that elevate things just before not working incredibly well.  The way Senensky shoots the dead bodies are horrific and brilliantly paced to build horror of revealing these bodies, but it falls flat when it comes to certain character moments.  Garrovick’s introduction in the episode is framed as if a villain is entering the scene, or at least if someone that the audience should already know is entering.  There’s also a scene with Chekov being ordered to take a position on the bridge, but it’s framed so poorly you don’t actually realize Chekov is there until a scene later when he actually appears on screen.  This may be due to the television cameras and working around the general bridge set, Senensky’s other episodes didn’t have this much material on the bridge with this many performers at once, but other directors haven’t had these problems.  Or perhaps the episode production was just running behind.

 

Overall, “Obsession” is an episode of Star Trek that’s generally outside the usual storytelling style, blending over to a different genre with a science fiction world in a very real character driven drama.  While it is an episode that includes themes that have been done before, Art Wallace’s script shines through the characterization and drama, though the direction lets things down slightly.  There’s also a climax that just feels as if the episode was running out of time instead of finding a natural ending point.  8/10.